February 22 - Great Pee Dee - Society Hill to Mechanicsville

Having clicked off most of the routes we are already familiar with, we geared up for unfamiliar territory and made the trek to the upper waters of the Great Pee Dee River. Well, at least the upper waters of the Pee Dee in SC. We had high hopes based on the name of the river alone. I mean, they can't call it the Great Pee Dee without it being great, right? We were feeling ambitious and decided to bite off one of the longer stretches and one that was geographically about as far away from Columbia as we could find. Road time is always longer than expected since we are hauling the boat and avoid interstates.                                                                                    
We were pleasantly surprised to find an excellent landing at the takeout site at the base of the Highway 34 bridge near Mechanicsville. (Don't bother looking up Mechanicsville on the map; you probably won't find it). There was some added drama when we dropped the car at the takeout. It looked as though someone had been nice enough to set some of the brush and railing around the parking lot on fire. So, after we had doused the smoldering embers, we cruised on up to the put-in via Mechanicsville Highway just west of the Hwy 34 bridge.  
The shuttle up to the booming metropolis of Society Hill was a little less than 30 minutes. The landing at the Hwy 15 bridge is top notch with plenty of parking and two concrete ramps. It is on the southwest corner of the intersection of Hwy 15 and the Pee Dee.                                                                    
There had been a good bit of rain several days before, so the water was flowing at around 18k, about twice the normal level. The river was fairly wide, deep, and clear of deadfall. We tend to see more wildlife in the morning than in the afternoon, and we weren't disappointed this morning. We had only been paddling for a few minutes when we spotted five young deer on the left. They were wet and shiny from a recent dip in the water, and after seeing us they sprinted off of the sandbar through a swampy area and out of sight.

The higher than usual water covered up a lot of the different land and water features, which caused the landscape, though very scenic, to become a bit monotonous after a few hours. We did, however, notice a few areas along the river bank where the land had been artificially built into a mound. We wondered if maybe farmers had built these berms many years ago as places for livestock to ecape high water. Now they were just part of the landscape with mature trees growing out of them. We also passed by some round metal structures in the current that must have been part of an abandoned bridge. We can't seem to find any information on it, though.

Thirty miles and five and a half hours later we reached the takeout. This was a very long paddle, and we were grateful for the high water to help move us along. We only saw 2 or 3 fishing boats as we got closer to the landing. You can probably expect many more as the weather starts to warm up - we didn't come across any shoals, so the water would be very navigable for motor boats.

This was an enjoyable river to paddle. The landings were nice, we didn't have any deadfall to contend with, and the current was a constant help. We only wish it were a little closer to home!

Click here to see the route

Name: Great Pee Dee River - 2/22/2014
Activity type: Canoe
Description: Hwy 15 (Society Hill) to Hwy 34 (Mechanicsville)
Total distance: 49.01 km (30.5 mi)
Total time: 5:27:37
Moving time: 5:20:03
Average speed: 8.98 km/h (5.6 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 9.19 km/h (5.7 mi/h)
Max speed: 11.70 km/h (7.3 mi/h)